Ketchikan

Welcome to Ketchikan. Population 8500 which doubles in summer
We completed travelling through the Inside Passage during the night and this morning berthed alongside the Main Street. The weather was cold wet and foggy. We took a tour which started around the town then further afield.

This is a lovely statue in the main st but had to be taken through a bus window.
Ketchikan is a fascinating town. Their major industries are tourism and salmon export. There are 3 canning factories one of which is Trident which I’ve seen in New World.

The houses are built on the sides of cliffs and what they call the street to the house is a very steep set is wooden steps as in the photo. The postman and rubbish collectors hate these streets for obvious reasons.

From town the bus took us to a Totem Pole park. The tribes many years ago lived very like our Maori people. Instead of Maori carvings they had totem poles all of which had significance. The poles be up to 50 feet tall. The type of carving is not at all similar to Maori carving which is much more intricate. The people also had what would be called a meeting house. These had a fire in the middle for cooking and warmth and 4 totem poles holding the building up.